Minimizing the environmental footprint through waste management and sustainable packaging
Bayer’s products and services are designed to help people thrive within the planetary boundaries. We want to decrease the environmental footprint within our operations and our value chain. To accomplish this ambition, we minimize material consumption and disposal volumes as much as possible through systematic waste management and we are advancing our sustainable packaging activities.
Waste
We aim to minimize material consumption and disposal volumes as much as possible through systematic waste management. Waste separation, safe disposal channels and economically reasonable recycling processes contribute to this. In accordance with our Group regulations, all production sites are obliged to prevent, reduce and recycle waste and to dispose of it safely and in line with good environmental practices.
Each of our sites must have an up-to-date waste register that includes the following details for each waste stream: the name and description of the waste, its source and volume and sufficient information on its composition, hazard classification and final treatment and disposal. Bayer ensures that waste is properly disposed of at its sites. Audits of external disposal facilities are also carried out for this purpose.
Read more in our Sustainability report.
Packaging
Key actions with respect to packaging are reducing, designing for recycling, recollecting and reusing/ usage of recycling material, and responsible sourcing.
We are aligned with the circular economy principles of Minimize (waste and pollution), Recirculate (circulate products and materials – at their highest value), Regenerate (reduce emissions and regenerate natural systems), and Partnerships (collaboration across the value chain).
The agricultural, pharmaceutical as well as the self-care sector are highly regulated, operating effectively within an evidence-based framework to maintain the highest standards. Bayer uses a variety of materials for its product packaging, with the most common being paper and plastic. Within our area of influence, we seek to address sustainable packaging along the value chain.
Sustainable packaging should offer maximum functionality with the best possible product protection, avoiding health and safety risks, cause minimal ecological impact, and be as circular as possible. We support regulatory frameworks and policy initiatives that promote and incentivize innovative sustainable packaging technologies, processes and business models, digitalization, strengthens industry competitiveness and reflects evolving market conditions.
Our divisions contribute to sustainable packaging in various ways:
The Consumer Health division is implementing an approach emphasizing recycling, reducing, being responsible and replacing and has set the following targets by/ for 2030: a) 100% of Bayer Consumer Health’s packaging will be recycle-ready or reusable, b) all packaging will include consumer-friendly recycling information, c) include an average of 50% recycled content, and d) 100% of purchased paper will be sustainably sourced.
The division also signed the Global Self-Care Federation’s Environmental Sustainability charter, to encourage industry-wide progress on the most material environmental challenges of the self-care industry, including sustainable packaging. Further information can be found here.
Our pharmaceutical business with prescription medication operates in a strictly regulated environment. Packaging is strictly oriented toward functional requirements, has unique challenges and a lower reduction potential. The division works continuously to reduce the ecological footprint in packaging and production. A great achievement, incorporating circular principles, was the new packaging design of our radioactive product Xofigo, where we are saving 38t of lead per year, while keeping the packaging safe for patients and the environment.
Due to the chemical composition of our crop protection products, the Crop Science Product Supply Team must ensure the compliance of our packaging with the UN Regulations for Dangerous Goods Transportation. Beyond these boundaries, we are constantly striving to enhance sustainability of our chemical and seeds packaging in terms of weight reduction, use of recycled materials as well as design for recyclability. As an example, related to Product Stewardship and Enhanced Producer Responsibility, the Bayer Crop Science team has been focusing on ensuring that used containers are properly emptied, rinsed and dispose. Bayer supports programs worldwide to foster the safe recollection and disposal or - even better - recycling of empty packaging and containers. Users can learn about product container disposal opportunities through information on our labels and/or Material Safety Data Sheets. In collaboration with the industry association CropLife International, Bayer supports the establishment of Container Management Systems for used crop protection containers particularly in countries without suitable collection or disposal programs, for example in Asia, Africa and some Latin American countries. Under coordination of CropLife International, the crop protection industry could achieve a global collection of 800,000 metric tons of plastic packaging since 2005. Further information at Crop Science Product Stewardship.
